The present invention relates to an improvement in the window covering which is efficient and enables individuals to have the facilitated ability to customize the width of horizontal blinds and reduce injury and damage to the horizontal blinds being custom fitted, as well as to reduce the danger to the individual performing the custom sizing of the blind sets.
Horizontal blind systems typically have an upper channel made of metal and configured to support movement and bearing components for horizontal blind operation. The two main operations are the elevation of the bottom horizontal which automatically collects the suspended horizontals above it and clears the window opening, and the angular movement of the slats utilized to allow light into the room at high or low angle or to close the louvers completely. The first operation is typically had by simply pulling a set of two or more suspension strings downward to, in a pulley fashion cause the bottom member to rise to collect the louvers. The second operation may be actuated by a pair of pull strings, or more recently by a control wand, to enable the louvers to change their angle. Thus the inside channel has to support bearing members for raising of the louver and a rotational drum for adjusting the angle of the louvers by raising and lowering two louver support verticals relative to each other.
Typically the louvers or slats are made of a soft material such as wood, plastic, nylon or other carbon based material. Further, in most horizontal blind sets, the upper channel is made of steel or aluminum. Even where very expensive and high precision saws are available, the cutting of the complex shape of the channel is extremely problematic. The saw used for metal and the saw used for the soft material, as a practical matter, have to be different. Cutting the soft material with a metal cutting saw would burn or melt the soft material, while cutting the metal with a soft material saw would rip and tear the metal, bending the upper channel and leaving sharp bits of metal torn away from the channel. The so-called soft material is in reality a material of soft cutting consistency which takes to account the fact that a saw typically takes larger bites of the material, proceeds much more quickly through the material, with the saw blade being typically configured to avoid generation of friction on the material at points past the cutting front. Metal saws are generally characterized as having teeth which take much smaller bites, and since the material to be cut is metal, any friction generated by the saw blade, as well as by the cutting teeth, are assumed to be readily dissipated especially by the metallic material, as well as by extended length of the cutting blade, especially in the case of a band saw. These are general characteristics of commonly available saw blades, and it is understood that a given blade may or may not have combinations of the specific characteristics enumerated.
The reaction to these problems has not been satisfactory. Attempting to select an intermediate type saw still carries the dangers of burn to the soft material and ripping to the channel. Further, any attempt to cut both the metal channel and the soft louver material simultaneously would be dangerous to the operator. Both the metal and the soft material have their own blades and the cutting operation proceeds at different speeds for each. The further unacceptable result is in trying to cut them separately. This means that the louvers or slats have to become dis-aligned from the channel, and that the cutting operation of each has to come within inches of the other. Further, when dis-aligned, or xe2x80x9cfannedxe2x80x9d to a small extent, and thus when not stacked together, the likelihood of a mis-match in dimension is high. The point of customization is not only for the blind set to fit an odd sized window, or even that the channel simply clear the width in which it is to be mounted. The point is to have a blind set which fits squarely into a window opening, and in which the louvers or slats have a fit within the window which appears custom and which shuts out light. Blind sets which are mounted outside of an opening and which are not custom fit can overlap the opening to affect the shutting out of light, however, this orientation is more likely to leave a gap between the side wall facings and the closed louvers or slats to thus provide an even greater impediment to sealing off of light.
What is therefore needed is a mechanism which allows blind sets having relatively soft louver or slat material to be more safely, rapidly and easily customized, and without the need for using different types of saw blades, and without the need to separate the channel from the louvers to cause either a mismatch in size or to cause an angled cut due to xe2x80x9cfanningxe2x80x9d. The needed solution should strengthen and stabilize the blind set while reducing the changes for size error and mis-match.
The structures and process of both forming and trimming the blind set include the provision of a channel extension or channel plug utilized in a blind set which has the louver manipulation components significantly inward to permit a reasonable amount of outboard removal while maintaining the balance and regular appearance of the blind set. The channel plug acts to stabilize the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped upper channel by having an insertion portion which not only fills a structurally significant extent of the channel in a shape which is substantially continuous with the external dimensions of the channel, but fully upwardly engages a pair of oppositely oriented curved inwardly and downwardly lips and fully downwardly engages the floor of the channel to form a rigid fit with respect to the channel. Moreover, the act of closely engaging the internal aspects of a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped channel by a rigid block structure even further bolsters the strength and stability of the channel alone, as well as further providing an even stronger structure at the end or ends of the channel. The strength bolstered end, regardless of the length to which it is cut, enables a more creative variety of wall supports, especially supplanting wall supports which were believed necessary to completely surround and engage the channel on a plurality of its corners or sides.
An extension portion of the channel plug has a pair of upper rails which match and blend with the terminus of the pair of oppositely oriented curved inwardly and downwardly lips to provide both stability, visual continuity, and continuous upper, frontal, rear, and bottom support as will be had from the particular mounting method employed. The plug is typically made from a material as soft as the material from which the louvers or slats are made, such as wood, plastic, polyethylene polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, medium density fiber board, plywood, fiber glass, polypropylene, paper or the like. The plug contains a pair of internal guide ribs to assist the engagement of a small threaded member which extends through the lower floor of the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped upper channel, and then engaging the plug at a surface adjacent such lower floor. The plug may have one or more edges or corners removed to reduce the effective perimeter of the end of the insertion portion to facilitate quicker insertion of the plug into the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped upper channel.